Iraqi Blogger Faces Extortion Attempts Over Copyright Issues on Instagram Account
In May 2023, the famous Iraqi blogger and activist Isaa Ahmed Adnan faced with an unexpected problem. His popular Instagram account of more than 500,000 subscribers began to be subjected to strange attacks: the sponsored posts and videos published by him suddenly disappeared due to copyright violations. Ahmed Adnan carefully avoided the use of music-protected music or other materials, so it was confused. One of the first remote videos was a video in which the blogger talked about a local restaurant and tried various dishes. Then a similar fate overtook a post on the volunteer campaign to clean the Tiger River.
Trying to understand the situation, the blogger contacted a man who claimed that he was complaining to Instagram about posts. He introduced himself as the owner of the business to protect intellectual property and admitted that the posts of Ahmed Adnan did not violate anyone’s copyright. However, the stranger proposed to restore remote materials for $ 3000, which approximately corresponds to the monthly income of the blogger. As an alternative, a subscription to “protection” from such false complaints for $ 1000 per month or $ 7000 per year was proposed.
The interlocutor also sent a screenshot to explain what Ahmed Adnan faced. In the screenshot, a tool was shown. META and its products are recognized as extremist, their activities are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation.